A Creature Like You
by gwebn
Summary: AU where Iceland is a mermaid boy and Taiwan is a girl who lives in a fishing village. This fic is also on AO3


The shy boy watched the girl from behind a submerged log. She was pulling up the rope nets full of fish again, just like she did yesterday and the day before. She sang a song as she worked in a language he didn't understand. Funny, the boy thought. The girl with the pink flowers in her chestnut hair could sing as beautifully as any mermaid... but her tanned legs and warm brown eyes branded her human.

The shy boy behind the log blinked his light amethyst eyes and slowly swished his pale reflective tail in the clear water. His webbed fingers looked almost pure white against the dark wood. He watched the girl on the dock with incredible curiosity. He often wondered what a creature like her would think of a boy like him.

The smiling girl with the rope fishing nets saw the shy boy in the water. She saw him every time she came to collect her catch. He tried to hide, but she always managed to spot him watching her with his curious purple eyes. She pretended to ignore him, not wanting to scare him away.

She sang for him as she worked, wondering what a creature like him though of a girl like her.

The mermaid boy never could build up the courage to approach the fascinating human girl casting her nets from the dock... until one day, he had an idea. He asked the oysters if they had a pearl to spare. The oysters, of course, obliged. They hated having pearls taking up space in their shells. Thanking the oysters profusely, the mermaid boy picked a cream colored pearl with a vibrant rainbow shine. The oysters didn't understand why he was thanking them for something that irritated them, but they didn't complain.

The next day, before the girl appeared, the mermaid boy wrapped the pearl in a bundle of red seaweed and left it on her dock. Too embarrassed to see how she'd react, the boy swam home.

When the girl showed up, she couldn't find the mermaid. Her spirits were crushed, thinking that he had grown bored of watching her. Her smile didn't reappear until she found his gift in a neat little bundle of seaweed on her dock. She stowed it away carefully, then went to work on her fishing nets. She sang as she pulled up her catches, wondering if she'll see him tomorrow.

The mermaid appeared the next day, just as the girl hoped. He was hiding again but he was never hard to find.

Instead of going to work on her nets, the girl dropped her clothes on the dock (which made the mermaid boy blush blue) and dove into the water.

"Hey!" The girl called out, swimming in the open water. The boy was surprised how gracefully she swam... for a human, anyway. "I can see you, you know. You should come out and say hi!"

Still blushing his odd mermaid blue, he peeked out from his hiding place. "You can?"

"You don't hide very well. I see you every time you show up." The girl laughed as she swam closer. "My name's Mei. Do you have a name?"

"Everyone has a name... except for cats, I guess." The mermaid said, watching Mei cautiously. His brother always told him not to trust people but Mei didn't seem like she was bad at all. "I'm Emil."

"Emil. That's a nice name." She smiled, swimming on her back and splashing in the water with her slender human legs. "I don't have to be home until dark, can I swim with you?"

Hesitantly, he agreed.

They swam and splashed until the setting sun stained the clouds a spilled wine red.

Mei left him with a kiss on the cheek and a thank you for the pearl.

When he was sure she had vanished completely into the village, Emil sank to the bottom of the bay with his webbed fingers covering his blue blushing face. The human girl was as lovely up close as she was from a far.

The next day and the days after that, Emil didn't try to hide from Mei's view. Instead, he waited for her by her dock, consciously avoiding getting tangled in her rope nets.

Some days they swam and other days Mei sat on her dock, dangling her feet in the water as they talked. Mei told him about the village she grew up in and Emil told her about the sandy sea bed him and his pod called home. She talked about her friends from school and he talked about the school of fish he encountered. To them, their stories sounded boring or mundane but to the other, it was a whole new world.

He once asked her why she looked so sad when she mentioned her family. She smiled (with her lips, not her eyes) and told him not to worry about it.

One day, the human girl didn't show up.

Emil waited for her at the dock, swimming nervous circles in the water until the sky went dark. He was about to give up for the night and swim back to his sea bed when he heard Mei's foot steps on the wooden planks. His relieved smile fell when he saw she was crying.

She leaned over the dock and told him she was leaving tomorrow.

"Why? Where are you going?" The heartbroken mermaid asked.

"I'm getting married." She choked out. "M-my oldest brother. He- he arranged it this spring."

Her tears fell into the bay.

"I don't want to do it, Emil. I pretended all summer that I wouldn't have to do it. I don't even know the man. All I know is that he has a lot of money." She her strained voice cracked as she spoke. "I'm so scared."

Emil blinked, reaching up to her face to wipe away her tears... though it was less than effective.

"Come with me, then."

"What?" Mei laughed, rubbing the sea water off her face. "How am I supposed to do that? Wear a clamshell bra and grow a tail?"

Emil tilted his head, then nodded. "Do you want to?"

"More than anything." She sighed.

The mermaid shifted anxiously, his tail splashing tiny ripples in the water behind him. "You wouldn't be able go back, even if you wanted to. Are you sure?"

Confused, the girl nodded. "I wouldn't ever want to come back. What are you talking about?"

"Come with me." He repeated with a smile.

"Again, how?" She frowned, not knowing if what he was suggesting was possible.

"I'll show you." The mermaid said as the freckles on his face started to disappear against his blush. "Are you ready?"

Leaning forward, she nodded.

Without another word, the mermaid kissed her, pulling her off the dock and into the water.

She almost hit him out of pure shock when they resurfaced... until she noticed her fingers were webbed just like Emil's.

"It worked!" He laughed and grabbed the hand she was examining, pulling her towards the open sea. "How does that tail feel?"

"Tail-?" She shrieked when she saw fins and scales in place of her legs and feet. "I have a tail!"

"I told you." He said, smug enough for Mei to splash him.

"Shut up, how was I supposed to know you could do this?" She swam ahead of him, showing off her new fins in pure euphoria.

"I didn't know would work!" He replied, happily chasing after her.

"You better be glad it did, otherwise I would have caught you in a net and fried you like a fish."

He laughed again, not doubting that in the least.

"Come on, Mei. Let's go home."


End file.
